When creating Radio Frequency (RF) networks within indoor environments (e.g., an aircraft environment), it is desirable to understand the physical extent over which RF receivers and transmitters are capable of reliably communicating with each other. This extent can be based upon the physical layout of the environment and/or the materials that make up the environment. For instance, a metal fuselage of an aircraft along with the various materials used within the fuselage can form a challenging environment for reliably creating RF networks due to multi-path issues, RF absorptive materials, etc.
In some cases, RF modeling can be used to infer the RF propagation within the environment, but modelling depends highly on the geometry of the environment and the RF characteristics of the materials used within the environment. Unfortunately, the RF characteristics of the environment may be poorly understood. Further, RF models may also poorly represent the potential multi-path propagation issues that are common within the metal fuselage of an aircraft.
While it may be possible to place testing equipment at various locations within the environment to capture RF information about the environment, this practice is time consuming and is limited in sample size. Further, this type of manual approach may miss possible communication issues that exist in the environment, since it would be impractical to test every conceivable physical location within a complex environment in a reasonable amount of time.